Sedge Warbler

Three on a sultry morning

I had just two hours to spare this morning, and decided to grab a short session on the river. Light drizzle was falling as I arrived, but it was still sultry and the river was low and clear. For the first hour or more, I could only find two fish rising and had them both without any fuss. They were quite decent trout, but each saved me the bother of unhooking by shaking off the fly themselves just before reaching the waiting net.

The next one was less obliging. I found it quietly taking something just under the surface in a more difficult spot to reach. I could see it quite well in the clear water as it came up now and then with the most gentle of rises, often little more than a dimple revealing its position close under some swaying reeds. Stubbornly, it would have nothing to do with anything I offered, but carried on taking as before.

Without much hope, I took a new fly from the box and clipped it down to a nymph-like shape and gave it a good soaking before sending it on its way. It went under on landing, and the trout had it at once, giving me a pretty good tussle, thrashing all over the place in anger before eventually sliding safely into the waiting net – another modest but beautiful, fit and feisty fish. I slipped it back in, and spent the last quarter of an hour watching a pair of Sedge Warblers carrying food to their young, hidden somewhere in the nearby vegetation. What a lovely river.

Best wishes

Will Bown